A Republican Supreme Court

Waldman warns that "if Romney wins he will be under enormous pressure to make sure that anyone he appoints will be not just conservative, but extremely conservative":

[I]f Mitt Romney were president and one of the four liberal justices stepped down, it would be the end of 5-4 decisions. It would also be the end of all the "What will Anthony Kennedy do?" discussions, since Kennedy won't matter much anymore. There would be five highly partisan, ideologically ambitious justices who would have the majority on every question that came before them. If Kennedy retired during a Romney presidency, we'd be left with many 5-4 decisions, but they'd all be decided in the conservatives' favor, and the effect would be the same.